Photography

Six word Saturday

Fluffy clouds

Cats

and boat people

Random moments from my Algarve week. I seldom take photos of animals. They have a habit of moving as soon as I point the camera. The three cats intrigued me, however, as they sat and just stared, and stared. I looked around for the hypnotist but he wasn’t anywhere about. The boat, in “dry dock” in Albufeira, was equally unmoving.

It seems so much more than a week since I was there. I have lots of golden moments to share, but there’s no time. I’m off to Lisa’s wedding. SO excited, I can barely type! You can guess what next week’s 6WS is going to be. Meantime, please visit Cate at Show My Face to share your week in six words. Click on the header or the link for details.

I hope to catch up with some of you tomorrow, but I may be a bit giddy!

Sunday Post : Hope

Jakesprinter is celebrating Hope with his Sunday Post this week. Newly returned from the Algarve, I’m afraid my hope is very selfish- that my dream of retirement in this beautiful place might not be too far off.

Some day I’d love to have a tile-fronted home

With maybe a door and windows like these

A tessoura roof and trim would be pretty

With a little roof garden

Of course, a little TLC might be in order

I love the blue tiles, but maybe brown could be good.

But wouldn't a lacy balcony be just perfect?

And wouldn’t a lacy balcony be just perfect?

Then there’s the joy of chimney pots

I could have such fun!

I’d have wonderful flowers in my garden

But one thing is certain- I'd always be close by boats and the sea

But one thing is always certain- I’d have to be close to boats and the sea

Thank you, Jake. I may be home again, but the hope is still very much alive. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else is hoping for this week, so join me over on Jake’s page? You won’t be sorry.

Just click on the flying dragon or the link.

Six word Saturday

Flying south, but not for long

Just a week, in Tavira. What will I find this trip?

Maybe, a little local festival?

Certainly a few walks, clifftop or otherwise (can you see the pirate ship?)

Absolutely some apple blossom

Familiar steps, leading up to the castle

Some winter flowers in the castle gardens

The drama of those cliffs

My much loved hibiscus plants

And a sunset or two over the tracks, as we walk down into town

When I return it’s just days to my daughter’s wedding and I can feel the excitement rising now. I hope to find a minute or two to post a few pics, but otherwise you know there’ll be a wedding bonanza coming up.

Many thanks to Cate at Show My Face for being our genial lady hostess. Click on the link or the header to see how you can join in. The button below will take you to my previous Six word Saturdays.

Cee’s fun foto challenge : wood

When it comes to the elements, I’m definitely drawn to water the most, but I’m also quite a tactile person. I can never resist stroking a gleaming wood carving, in a park, or museum. Tree bark often attracts my finger tips, especially the coppery hue of the Tibetan cherry. Cee’s fun foto challenge this week has me looking at photos related to Wood. It surprised me to see just how many uses we have for it.

Wooden rocking horse, Newstead Abbey

A wooden barco rabelo, once used to carry port upstream

Porto’s beautifully fitted and upholstered trams

Chess pieces by the lakeshore at Fuschl, Austria

Immaculate Turkish gulet

A wooden bench fit for Queen Victoria

What the well-dressed tree is wearing nowadays

Carollers in the richly panelled Great Hall, Newstead Abbey

Punts on the river at Cambridge

Shade giving trees in the chapel gardens, Tavira

Tudor style timbered building in York

The boardwalk at Cabanas

Click on any of the photos to start the gallery rolling, then head over to Cee’s page to see the many different interpretations of the challenge.

Sunday Post : Simplicity

Jake’s back! And with beautiful Simplicity this week. No animated graphics, proving that simple can still be very beautiful. Simplicity is “easy to explain; not complicated”. Sounds good to me.

When I think of simplicity, my thoughts turn to the good things in life: crusty bread with cheese and tomatoes, stong coffee and, maybe, a glass of wine; strawberries fresh from the market stall, so nice you have to eat them out of the paper bag before you even get home; the smell of barbecueing fish as you stroll along the beach.

Do you agree with my definition in these photos? Click on any of them to start the slide show.

Home made goods and pastries at the Arabian market in Cacela Velha

Working the wood lathe

The simplicity of blowing bubbles to amuse Robin

An empty beach with gently lapping tide

The simple beauty of wild cistus on the hillsides of Portugal.

Mingling with the friendly oranges

The hottest of red hibiscus!

The boat pulled up on the shoreline, waiting to put to sea for the next catch

Me beachcombing (courtesy of Michael)

A natural spring- the simplicity of nature

Full mopheads adorn the castle gardens in Tavira

And the simplicity of paper flowers used for celebration

The sun setting on a silent sea

The simplicity of life in the Algarve is what calls me back, again and again. Thank you Jake for giving me the opportunity to share so much of what is beautiful in my world.

Please do join in Jakesprinter’s challenge by clicking on the flying dragon logo or the links. Jake has many friends and I know there will be lots of great entries.

Six word Saturday

I love it, but hate it!

Just a smattering, seen through the conservatory window

It’s coming! It’s coming!

Run upstairs and look out of the window

Let’s check out the park

So pretty and ethereal

Not frozen- yet!

Water glistens on the tree

There I am, but look at that sky!

Droplets were melting and blowing off the trees

Just one romantic couple

Noone sitting on the benches today

A delicate snow bush

Over the hedge, the bowling green

No tea and cake in the pavilion today

The melancholy clock tower

You know what I’m talking about. Magical soft fat flakes that have me rushing out to play. Followed by grumpy Alice a day or two later, when it’s turned to a slippery grey skating rink.

Click on the first photo to see them in gallery form. It’s clever, isn’t it?

Have you got six words to sum up your week? Cate at Show My Face will be delighted for you to join in. Click on the header or the link to find out more.

Cee’s fun foto challenge : water

Do I need a logo? I’m not sure. I’ve never taken part in Cee’s fun foto challenge before. But I do know that I love water, and that’s this week’s subject. So I’m going to shower you with a few of my damper moments.

Ooh, look Mum!

Water feature in the Rynek (market square), Wroclaw

A little warm rain in the botanic gardens

The moorhen doesn’t seem to mind

Japanese water gardens always look so serene

Or you can have dancing waters and a musical accompaniment

Or you can have dancing waters, with a musical accompaniment

Especially pretty by night

I like my water on the wild side too

Or lapping gently at a shoreline

With a few bubbles in it, for fun

Or the odd branch, dangling down

Or stunningly,as part of a "waterfall" light installation

Most stunningly, as part of a “waterfall” light installation

I probably should stop now. My eyes are tired, and maybe yours are too. But I’m not good at doing things by halves, so maybe just a couple of my lovely Portugal to finish with.

Water tickling a sunny square in Lagos, the Algarve

And sparkling in the Douro at Porto

So many lovely shots I have of the Douro

But it’s time to let the sun set, at Peso da Regua

I did say that I love water, didn’t I? And I know that I’m not on my own, so visit Cee’s page to join in with the challenge, or view the many other great entries.

H is for Hotel

You may remember, when I started my personal A-Z challenge on Poland, I gave you the briefest of introductions to the Polish Alphabet? Well, “h” is one of those letters that is very little used, at the beginning of a word, in Polish. More often you will see “ch”, which is pronounced as in the Scottish word “loch”. Thus “chleb” (bread- very delicious in Poland!) sounds a little like “Hleb”.

Are you following me so far? When it came to choosing a word to represent “H” in my A-Z, I had few choices. My first thought was “Historia”, but it would take a far better woman than me to tackle Polish history in a single blog post! So, I had “Hiszpania” or “Holandia”- not very appropriate in a blog about Poland? Or “huśtawka”- a lovely word that means “swing”; “hokej”- a game I was rubbish at in my schooldays, or “humor”- couldn’t we all use a little of that!

Dad with cousin Irena, on the swingseat (hustawka) on her patio

It was when I thought back to my first ever Polish lesson that the solution became clear. I pounced with delight on the word “hotel”, leaping out of the text to embrace me. Pronounced, of course, in the Polish way, but a familiar and welcome sight, never-the-less. It is one of a dozen or so words that have been adopted into the Polish language.

To date, I have stayed in three Polish hotels. I mentioned one of them in my post B is for Belchatow. Because I am visiting family when I go to Poland, and am made very welcome in all of their homes, I seldom have need of an hotel. When my husband, Michael, accompanied me, on the occasion of Krzysztof and Marzena’s wedding, we needed a little privacy, and opted to stay for a few nights in the Sport Hotel. Large and central to Bełchatów, it made a great base for exploring the town. But then, as now, my Polish was a little shaky, and on a sweltering hot day we were served piping hot soup with our breakfast. Michael’s faith in my ability to negotiate the Polish language was severely dented.

Water features in the park at the centre of Belchatow

Visiting family in Wrocław with my Dad, I again stayed in a local hotel, though Dad managed to squeeze in with the family. Living in a 3-bedroomed flat, with 3 children, dog, cat and terrapin, private space is a luxury for my cousin, Wojtek and his lovely wife, Agnieszka. Despite this, I have seldom met a happier, more close-knit family. I could not have been made more welcome in sharing meals and family time with them. Both work, but were at great pains to show me their beautiful city, and once I’d got my bearings, set me loose to wander, returning when I was hungry. I’m not known for my sense of direction, so this sometimes took longer than planned. I haphazardly changed trams and buses half a dozen times, and walked and walked till I found them again! But a smile, a hug and a plate of food always awaited, before I returned to the hotel for the evening. I never ate breakfast at the hotel- goodness knows what I might have ordered!

Wroclaw’s colourful tram junction

You might know I’d squeeze in a boat or two

Qubus Hotel, Wroclaw

The foyer in Hotel Jan Pawel on Ostrow Tumski, Wroclaw

Super stylish Hotel Monopol

Agnieszka and youngest daughter, Kasia, on Hotel Monopol’s rooftop terrace

Rooftop view from the Hotel Monopol

My third hotel experience occurred in the small village of Poronin, in the Tatry Mountains area, and was the most joyous of occasions. Not unlike a large Swiss chalet, the Hotel Weronika (don’t forget to pronounce the “w” as “v”) provided food and shelter for a huge gathering of us on the occasion of Adam and Marta’s Silver Wedding. The setting was beautiful, and the hotel grounds provided lots of space for the youngsters to use up energy. (theirs, and ours!) And then, in good old Polish fashion, we ate, danced and drank till we could do it no more. Adam’s oldest daughter, funnily enough called Weronika, is getting married in May 2014. What a celebration that will be!

View from our hotel gardens of the church in Poronin

I think that’s enough to tell you about my hotel experiences in Poland, for now. You can find more of the ups and downs of my reunification with my Polish family on my personal A-Z of Poland page. Meantime, if you’d like to join in with Julie Dawn Fox’s A-Z challenge, the banner below will take you to the main site, where you can have a good look around.

Six word Saturday

Am I allowed a dark side?

Witches hats

In close up

And with Penshaw Monument in the background

If you look through one of these holes, you get a close up image

If you look through one of these holes, you should see a close up image (Penshaw Monument in this case)

I believe it's a trick of the eye, but I couldn't get a shot through it to show you

I believe it’s a trick of the eye, but I couldn’t get a shot through it to demonstrate- sorry!

So I wandered off to see the swans instead

They weren’t too impressed with me

But the silly bench didn’t seem to mind

I checked out some industrial mining heritage

Until it was time to go

I write travel blogs. It’s my job to entertain, and take you wandering along with me, and I love to do it. Sometimes it’s an escape- a welcome release when things aren’t going well. These photos I took in Herrington Country Park this week seemed to match my mood.

Cate at Show My Face welcomes all such random observations on life. Pop over and see how everyone else’s week has gone, or even play the game. Why not? The header and link will tell you how.

A Winter’s walk around Staindrop

Don’t all shout “where?” at once! You know I like a wander, even if it is dull and grey. Actually I was blessed with the occasional ray of sunshine, but don’t blink too quickly, or you’ll miss it.

You may have seen my post on Barnard Castle, a lovely riverside spot. Whenever we drive out that way we pass through the viillage of Staindrop, and curiosity impelled me to have a closer look. Nearby is stately Raby Castle, with its massive deer park. Sorry- no deer photos! They were either feeling shy or sheltering beneath distant trees.

If you click on the first photo, you’ll get the guided commentary. Bye for now!